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Owner of seized dogs expected animals to be given back

Posted at 11:29 PM, Apr 01, 2014
and last updated 2014-04-01 23:29:16-04

Terry Shinaberry says he let the Humane Society take his dogs, thinking once they were fixed, they'd be returned to him.

"When they're calling me a hoarder," Shinaberry said. "A hoarder keeps every dog. If I was a hoarder, I would have a litter of dogs and keep them all."

Some of the dogs are ready for adoption at the SPCA in Virginia Beach. Norfolk SPCA has more than a dozen that will be ready to find new homes next week. Shinaberry says he thought the dogs would get fixed, and then be returned home.

"It's just all ludicrous, the whole thing is ludicrous," Shinaberry said.

The dogs were taken from the 58-year-old's Murfreesboro home a week ago. The sheriff says the dogs were neglected.

"I ain't doing nothing different than the rescue groups here, except I do it where I ain't got to kill the dogs," Shinaberry said. "No dog dies here."

Shinaberry says the worst of the dogs were ones he rescued from irresponsible breeders.

"We saw a lot of malnutrition, parasites, eye infections, blindness, deafness," said Rob Blizard, the executive director for the Norfolk SPCA.

Blizard wouldn't get in to the specifics of the health issues of the dogs.

"Some of them were withdrawn," Blizard said. "They weren't very well socialized, you know. Fifty dogs in one property. So now they're getting individual attention."